Basketball

For Ross and the Beermen, it's always championship or bust

Paul Lintag on Jul 03, 2017 11:34 AM

"Winning never gets old. When you win a championship, you always want that feeling." --- Chris Ross.

With the addition of the 2017 PBA Commissioner's Cup to its collection, San Miguel Beer has now won five championships over the last eight conferences in three years.

In two of the three tournaments they didn't win, the Beermen made the semifinals.

With this current San Miguel dynasty, it's championship or bust each and every conference. No one exemplifies that mentality more than Chris Ross, the guy who has evolved to to be the heart of the Beermen over the course of the title-winning binge.

"Every conference that we get ready for, anything less than a championship is a failure," Ross said after San Miguel made it 2-for-2 this season by beating TNT in the Commissioner's Cup in six games.

"Winning never gets old. When you win a championship, you always want that feeling. We know that feeling, we won five out of eight championships and those three conferences that we didn't win, everyone was down," he added.

As impressive as the Beermen have been in the last three years, 2017 will be the first time that the team, at least for this core, will have a real shot at a Grand Slam.

And after taking down all contenders on their way to two titles this season so far, it appears that the triple crown is for San Miguel to lost at this point.

Ross, who has emerged as the Beermen's fiery heart, will make sure the team is prepared since a Grand Slam win could elevate this San Miguel team past legend status.

If they complete the Grand Slam, these Beermen could make their case as one of the best the PBA has ever seen.

"We know the task that is coming up, not a lot of teams have been able to win that Grand Slam and we're one championship away. Just like these last two conferences, we're gonna go in and prepare, work hard. We know the Grand Slam is really hard to get but we're up for the task," Ross said.

"Once you reach that mountaintop, every chance you get you wanna get there. We're trying to win as many [championships] as we can," he added.